Prejudice Toward A Blind Man In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

First published in 1983 by Raymond Carver, “Cathedral” tells the story of a man, who in his ignorance, holds a prejudice towards a blind man who comes to visit in his home. While most of Carver’s short stories have hopeless plots, the ending in “Cathedral” is enlightening and optimistic. The plot is rather simple and upon first glance only tells a straightforward story. But once the reader takes a closer look, he sees the irony and meaning behind the simplistic story line. While the blind man has no physical vision, it is his heart that can “see” almost on spiritual levels. Through the drawing of the Cathedral with the blind man, the narrator, who has full physical vision, obtains spiritual vision in matters of love and purpose in life.

Raymond

Carver’s short story opens when the narrator is preparing for his wife’s friend, a blind man, to visit.

His wife worked for the blind man, known as Robert, ten years ago. During the past ten years, the wife and Robert have been exchanging audiotapes. The narrator is baffled as to how the blind man and his wife have such a close relationship. He says, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (James 494). When his wife asks him to listen to a tape that Robert had sent, the narrator reluctantly agrees and they sit down to listen. They are interrupted by a knock on the door but the narrator doesn’t seem to mind- “I’d heard all I wanted to” (James 495). The prejudice that the narrator shows towards the blind man shows his own transcendent blindness. Miwar Obaid notes that, ”The narrator is distant from his wife and seems very alone and negative. He is unsympathetic to his wife and the blind man” (6). When Robert arrives, the narrator is uncomfortable and finds himself

scrambling for ways to engage with the man. As the night drags on and the wife falls asleep, the narrator and Robert find themselves watching a program about cathedrals on the television. Realizing that Robert cannot see the program, the narrator asks if he has any idea of what cathedrals look like. After thinking about what he knew about them, Robert tells the narrator that he doesn’t have a good idea of what they look like. Eventually both the narrator and Robert end up on the floor drawing a cathedral together. Although the main purpose was to enlighten Robert about the structure of a cathedral, it is ultimately the narrator who is enlightened. Throughout the night, the narrator experiences a connection he has never felt or understood.
Although he is a married man, the narrator is blind to the true meaning of love. The first section in Carver’s “Cathedral” relays the history of relationships prior to the one between the narrator and his wife. First, there is the relationship between the wife and her first husband, who is training to become an officer in the navy. Having to constantly relocate with the military, the wife feels isolated and becomes depressed. After attempting suicide, they finally divorce. Another relationship is between the wife and Robert- although they were never romantically involved, the narrator does not understand how they were able to connect and keep in touch for so long. Miwar Obaid speaks of the wife in his literary analysis saying, “…she is a woman who needs a attention” and “She is a sensitive woman” (9). Although he is blind, Robert is able to listen to the wife and tries to understand her sensitivities. The reader learns that on her last day of work, the wife lets Robert run his hands over her face. The narrator doesn’t see the significance in that specific moment until he later experiences a similar moment.
The most significant relationship alluded to is that between Robert and his late wife, Beulah. Immediately holding up a stereotype towards Beulah’s name, the narrator asks, “Was his wife a negro?” (James 496). Once again, the narrator cannot grasp their love. “…I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit. And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one” (James 496). Towards the end of the story, the narrator realizes that unconditional love does not depend on sight. Sitting on the ground in the middle of the night, he finally sees beneath the surface of his physical vision and feels a connection. Previously, he had shut out emotions and he “could not see beyond the physicality of a relationship and was not able to apprehend how Robert could have ever esteemed Beulah” (Obaid 8). His wife tries to share her thoughts and joys with him through her poems and Robert’s tapes but he cannot see the importance it poses to her. He is a man, “lonely, distant and in need of human contact” (Obaid 8). After his experience with Robert on the floor in the dark of the night, he grasps what his wife and Beulah both gained from the seeing and loving heart of a blind man.
Not only does the narrator see deep matters of the heart, he also finds purpose in life. At one point in the night, Robert asks the narrator, “let me ask if you are in any way religious?” (James 503). The narrator replies saying he doesn’t believe in anything. The reader discovers that on most nights, the narrator has multiple drinks, smokes dope and stays up into the early morning hours as a sources of comfort. To the narrator, there is not much more to life than working and sitting at home. According to the wife, we learn that, “You don’t have any friends” (James 496). In contrast, Robert has not let his physical limitations stop him. “Even though his vision is closed off to the world, he is actually open-minded and understands life better than the narrator (qt. Obaid 9). Robert is able to present his mindset to the narrator when they are flipping through television programs. He says, “”Whatever you want to watch is okay. I’m always learning something. Learning never ends. It won’t hurt me to learn something tonight. I got ears” (James 501).
Robert’s philosophy of life serves as a “catalyst for change in the lives of both the wife and husband, by offering them an opportunity for genuine connection and/or by subtly using statements to influence the two” (Caldwell 3).

When attempting to describe a cathedral to Robert, the narrator discovers he cannot describe the essence of it. His situation serves as an example of his life- there is no depth or purpose. Eventually, after ending up on the floor drawing a cathedral with Robert, he is able to comprehend the fullness in the drawing. With Robert’s hand guiding his own, the narrator comes to a “realization that there is more to life than an unrewarding job and marriage, self-imposed isolation and views predicted on third party sources instead of real life experience” (Caldwell 4). With his eyes closed, the narrator sees more as a blind man than he does with his eyes open. “But I had my eyes closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (James 504). Once the drawing is completed, the narrator feels a sense of freedom that he has never felt. Tracy Caldwell describes it as, “the real accomplishment was not in the product but rather in the process of creating” (4). This experience in the early morning hours transforms the narrator’s outlook on life. Prior to drawing a cathedral with Robert, he was blind to any purpose in his life. Obaid states, “the narrator lacks sight into the wonder of things, the potential for magnitude in

humanity…” (5). Before his experience, he held a prejudice towards blind people but ironically, he gains sight from contact with the blind man.
What began with an ignorant man full of prejudice and uncertainty about a blind man ends with the hope for a broader outlook on life. Robert’s deep spiritual insight that he has gained from bring blind gives the narrator a deeper understanding of the heart and life. The narrator is “continually surprised as his ideas of blindness are, one by one, demolished during his actual encounter with a blind person” (Caldwell 2). The intricacy of the Cathedral helps the man with spiritual blindness see the great need of love and the ambition in life.